Cold morning

The image was scanned from a glass plate exposed by Martin Estep, an amateur photographer, about 1900. The view is toward the Canonsburg railroad station on Jefferson Avenue, looking across part of the ice pond that was where the stadium now is.

(Submitted by Jim Herron)

In my day ...

There was a time, long ago, when big trucks with giant snowplows didn't exist. There weren't even smaller trucks that scatter granules that melt ice. The photo was taken in 1913 on South Central Avenue, Canonsburg, by Howard M. Taylor. Two teams of horses, one hitched to each end of a long board, scraped at least some of the snow off the road.

(Submitted by Jim Herron)

Charleroi City Grocery, 321 Fifth St., Charleroi, Pa., circa 1909. Owner Charles Clarence Stephens is shown, third from left.

Matching cousins "Our Gang" Petey

An Amazing Christmas Gift
Originally uploaded by Marc_714

Two cousins with ties to Pittsburgh on a visit to Atlantic City.

Old friends

Notice the similarity in expressions ...

wishes for santa

wishes for santa
Originally uploaded by hastingsgraham

Concentration

Back in the days before computers, when work was done with a brain and a fountain pen ...

Air racer

This photo from the Mayfield Photos in Dayton, Ohio, shows the great air racer Roscoe Turner. Written on it is: "To the Aero Club of Washington, Pa., with all good wishes – Roscoe Turner 1940."

Turner was a barnstormer in the 1920s and set the cross-country speed record in 1930. He was the nation's top air racer until he retired in 1939 to open a military flying school.

Turner visited Washington in July 1949 for ceremonies honoring DeLloyd "Dutch" Thompson, the local aviator who died later that year. Turner died at age 75 in 1970.

Working steel

Here's another photo by Dan Harbaugh of the Jessop Steel mill in Washington, Pa., in the 1940s. I'm not sure if steel is being ground or cut, but maybe someone out there can explain.

Fancy boots on sale

Borland's department store, Monongahela, Pa.

Roadside snack

Here's another photo from the Harbaugh collection, identification, date and location unknown. The black-and-white photo was hand-tinted, and not very well. Or maybe they're just munching on mustard sandwiches.

Jessop Steel workers

These two people in the offices at Jessop Steel in the 1940s appear to be microfilming documents, although there was no identification or description accompanying this photo from the Harbaugh Studios. The balloony pants are what caught my attention. Plenty of slack in those slacks!

Decorated veteran

The portrait was found inside the old Webster Bank building, Webster, Pa., when the abandoned brick structure was razed several years ago. The photo was likely taken by H.D. Odbert, who was city treasurer in Monessen, Pa., and had a studio on Donora Avenue in Belle Vernon.

On the beach

Another undated photo with no identification from the Harbaugh collection ...

I like this photo because of its allegorical nature. It's one of those photos you can look at for a long time and start imagining who the people were and what their circumstances were: the young married couple on holiday with the wife's crazy sister, who comes to the beach with a pitcher of Manhattans...

Road hunting

I'm not sure how this ended up in the box of Harbaugh Studios photos; a stamp on the back indicates it was a promotional photo from General Motors. What's being promoted are special window arrangements and windows with gun holes, presumably to make shooting at suspects from cars safer. Hmmm.

Boilermakers

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, Allenport Works, Boiler House, Route 88 on West bank of Monongahela River, Washington County, PA

A man and his gator

This is another photo from the Harbaugh collection. Typically with these photos from the studio once located at 69 N. Main Street in Washington, Pa., date, identification and location are unknown.

School photo, 1931

This photo is my father's and uncle's class at the Franklin School, Forward Township, Allegheny County, Pa., circa 1931. My dad, Bill Huston, is in the second row from the bottom, second from the left. His brother, Charles Huston, is the first one in the row.

Dad would've been about 6 years old at the time and Uncle Charlie would've been about 8 or 9. I do not know who the other people in the photo are. - Bill Huston, Elizabeth, Pa.

No place for old men

Washington County Old Men's Home, Laundry Building, 2198 North Main Street, Arden vicinity, Washington County, PA

The campaign train

Most of Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 presidential campaign was conducted from a rail car crossing the country. He is shown here in Latrobe, Pa.

Mill on Mill Street

This old mill, shown here in the late 1920s, was torn down just a few years ago. It stood at the corner of West Wheeling and Mill streets in Washington, PA.It was owned by the Farmers Milling Corp. at the time this photo was taken.

Prim and proper

Two mistresses of the Washington Female Seminary chat on the lawn at the corner of Maiden and Lincoln streets in Washington, Pa., in the late 1800s.

Recognize her, anyone?

I keep running across this photo in the Observer-Reporter archives and wondering who she is. I can't help but feel that I've seen this photo before, and that she is someone famous. Smoking a cigarette and displaying all that ankle must have been scandalous at the time.

After the storm

Judy Carmichael Glenn sent us this photo, which she thinks was taken after the record Thanksgiving snowstorm of 1950. It shows South Main Street between Beau and Wheeling streets in Washington, Pa.